Durham, USA - Police fear a missing 6-year-old North Carolina boy is dead after a former member of a polygamist cult said the child had been killed by the group's leader in a fit of rage.
Jadon Higganbothan, whose mother is reportedly a member of a splinter group of the Black Hebrews sect, has been missing since October. An ex-member told police the boy was shot dead by cult leader Peter Moses, according to a warrant obtained by NBC News.
The unidentified former member also accused Higganbothan's mother, Vania Sisk, of beating and fatally shooting Antoinetta McKoy, a missing North Carolina woman thought to have been living with the group.
The former member told Durham police that Moses, 27, "had grabbed a gun and began pacing angrily around the house" in October before calling Higganbothan into the basement, shooting him and then stuffing the boy's plastic-wrapped body in the attic. When the body began to smell a few days later, Moses allegedly agreed to "remove" it, the informant said.
Neither Moses nor Sisk has been charged with any crime related to the disappearances of Higganbothan and McCoy.
McKoy's mother, Yvonne McKoy, said women in the group were expected to revere Moses.
"They worshipped him like he was the Lord. The women went to work, and they brought him the money home," she told WRAL.
The Black Hebrews is a black religious sect whose members generally believe they are the only true descendants of ancient Israelites.
Police have searched the splinter group's Durham home multiple times looking for evidence in the disappearances. In one search, police said they found Moses hiding in a cabinet. At the time, he was wanted on a weapons charge.
The group temporarily moved late last year to Colorado, where authorities found nine children and nine adults living in their Colorado Springs-area home. Police in Colorado, acting on a tip from a former member who told them "horrific" abuse of children was occurring in the home, removed the children and placed them into state custody, Teller County Sheriff's Sgt. Nick Olmsted told the Gazette.
Olmsted said at least five of the children had the same father but different mothers who all belong to the group. According to the News and Observer, Moses is the father of three of Sisk's children. Higganbothan's father is not inside the group.
Moses' family denied that he was a part of any cult. "Pete Moses is not part of any movement such as Black Hebrews. He has no part of any cult, nor does any member of his family," his family said in a statement to WRAL.
Police in North Carolina say the group has since returned to Durham. A warrant was issued for Sisk's arrest there after she failed to show up to a court date Tuesday on a marijuana charge.
Durham police did not immediately respond to a request for comment today from AOL News.